I played with cheats almost all the time when I was a kid, but I was rarely doing it for difficulty reasons. I just got used to the idea early on of game engines just being digital sandboxes and loved seeing how far I could push things.
I don’t really understand using cheats as a difficulty bypass unless you’re there just to get the story/explore.
I use ChatGPT similarly. If I want to explore an idea without consequence, I can use it to brainstorm, but it’s not going to be how I lay out an entire project.
I guess I have to put my foot in my mouth over a comment I made a month or so back. I had said an XBOX handheld would sell out against the Steam Deck simply due to brand recognition.
This was of course before I thought they’d be dumb enough to make a console twice as expensive aimed at the mass market. If this was targeted at the same price as the Deck, they might have had a chance.
I don’t know anyone that would consider one of these now.
Yeah, even if it’s a big brand attachment or whatever, I’m never going to complain about a big charity donation. (as long as it’s not a bogus charity, of course)
I’ve just had my gaming PC hooked up to my living room TV for the last several years. I have a lower power desktop on my room for anything that isn’t gaming. I can’t imagine buying one of the modern consoles just for their limitations alone.
Plus I just wait a few years and 95% of the explained make their way to PC anyway.
I agree with all of your points, but if we don’t even shine a positive light on steps in the right direction, then what are we supposed to do? Wait until we’re in a utopia, then start acknowledging improvements?
This isn’t a perfect final solution, but it’s a positive step, so I’d still say worth celebrating.
But that’s just it. That fiddling isn’t something the dev probably accounted for, so it should be noted that the experience will be less than optimal. I think it still fits.
I’ve been playing racing games ever since I was a kid but was never into Nintendo. I played everything from Crash Team Racing to Assetto Corsa and everything in between, but never own a Mario Kart game.
Just in the last year my roommate picked up a Wii U and I played through 8. It doesn’t necessarily do anything that other racing games haven’t individually done better and there’s nothing truly unique.
That being said, the one thing it does better than anyone else is precision and feedback. It is exceptionally tight and responsive compared to others like it. It’s also just incredibly well animated and visually consistent. The game still looks good a decade later, no issues.
I would akin a lot of what Nintendo does to Apple. Not necessarily the first, or the most powerful, but almost always the most polished.
I fixed it. It was 15 million projected in the first year, 2.2 million preorders. But I think that point still stands. The Deck has been out for a few years now.
I can see this perspective, for sure. I definitely didn’t click with this game quite as much with the first go through, but it was the second time where I wanted to build something specific and get into the world more that I had a lot more fun.
You definitely have to suspend your disbelief with the “ticking time bomb” and I wish the story canonically allowed for exploration after the ending, but I also see how that wouldn’t work that well with some of the endings.
I think they ultimately had to choose their battles and I’m hoping for a bit less of that in the sequel if anything.
Just another 8-10 years before we get to play it guys!
Seriously, though. I don’t know how you one-up the first game. I’ve been replaying it and I’m just constantly in awe at the number of hidden little gems to go explore.
I just found out the text messages you get from Club Riot are for actual events in world and not just flavor text. I haven’t dug into it, but it almost sounded like they had multiple sets of music for the different artists. Just so many little details.
I agree with everything you said, but I still don’t think that will change the decision of someone on the fence. The Deck is the odd one out.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the Deck and SteamOS and want it to succeed, and expect them to to a certain degree, but I just know the average consumer and they’ll just look at the SteamOS handhelds as a weird knockoff gaming computer.
We all know how special it is because we were the target market. But when all is said and done, it comes down to what people know.
If Valve was advertising like the big guys do, maybe, but with no ad support, not a chance.